Behind the Bangs of Snow
by happygothchick
Summary: Echo's past is revealed! Who destroyed her village? What was it like when her keke genkai was first revealed itself?


_Behind the Bangs of Snow_

"Kakashi-sensei!! Kakashi-sensei!!"

"Naruto!! Wait up!!"

Two young shinobi were racing from rooftop to rooftop, searching for their sensei, Kakashi Hatake. (For reasons unknown. Probably just to bug him.)

The boy's name was Naruto Uzumaki (age 15). The girl's was Sakura Haruno (age 15).

It was dusk when they found him at a large fountain in the middle of the village square. Naruto began to jump down from the roof when Sakura grabbed the tail of his jacket and pulled him back.

"Wait, Naruto. It looks like he's waiting for someone."

"Huh? How can you tell?"

"Look closely. He's not reading Icha Icha Paradise. Don't you think that's weird?"

"Hey, you're right! I wonder who it-!"

Just then, a woman with white hair stepped out of an ally. She wore a long, black cloak that stopped at her feet. Sakura and Naruto ducked lower so they wouldn't be seen.

"It's been al long time, eh, Kakashi?" Her voice sounded like bells.

"Ten years. It's good to see you, Echo."

The woman stepped into the street light to reveal her features.

"Hey!" Whispered Naruto. "She looks familiar."

"Do you know her, Naruto?"

"…I…don't know…"

"I see you haven't changed a bi--!"

Before the woman could finish, a man with short, black, bowl-cut hair and large eye-brows wearing a green jumpsuit with an orange sash around his waist, leaped at her from behind. His head pushed against her lower back and his arms around her waist.

"Laaaadyyyyy Echoooooo!!!!! My LOOOOOVVVEEE!!!!!"

"Gyahh!!! Gai!?!? Get off me!!! I ain't your freakin' love!!!"

"Forgive me, Lady Echo, for once I saw you I couldn't restrain myself."

Gai had straitened himself and smiled. That (stupid) ping of his teeth going off as he did a thumbs-up.

When Gai had grabbed her, Echo's cloak had ripped so she pulled it off revealing black tank-top, black bicycle shorts, black boots that stopped at her ankles, and the bottom part of a black overcoat that was connected at her waist by a large silver ring.

Naruto quickly covered his nose to prevent Sakura from seeing his nosebleed.

'_Wow. She's beautiful. Ooh, I'm sooo jealous!!!' _Inner Sakura shouted.

"Um, Gai." Kakashi said. "We were kind of in the middle of something."

"You!" Went Gai. "You're trying to steal my woman, aren't you?"

"I'm NOT your woman!!!"

"Kakashiii!!! We shall have a battle to the dea--!!"

THONK!!!

Echo had elbowed Gai in the head and he fell to the ground. Steam rose from his head from the pain.

"Well," She started. "I guess we can go eat. Hey! You two! Show's over with! Get down here! You can eat with us!" She waved toward Naruto and Sakura.

"She knew we were here!?!?!" They said at the same time.

Four ninjas sat at Ichiraku's eating ramen. Naruto and Echo were pigging out. Naruto was on his third bowl. Echo was on her fourth. Sakura was still on her first and Kakashi didn't order anything. (Go figure)

"Aw, man!! I love Ichiraku's. Their ramen's the best!!"

"Oh, yeah!!" Naruto agreeing with Echo's comment.

"Wow. I never thought I'd meet someone who could out eat Naruto on ramen." Said Sakura. Echo laughed. She had already finished her bowl while Naruto was still slurping.

"Hey, Naruto. Whatever happened to those goggles of yours?" She poked his head band.

"Sopff thaff waff yewfff!!"

"Swallow."

He did. With a big gulp.

"Heh. I meant to say 'So that was you'."

"So you do know her, Naruto." Went Sakura.

"Yeah. She was the one who gave me those goggles about ten yea-. Wait! Ten years! Kakashi-sensei!! Isn't that how long you said Lady Echo was gone! That means!"

"That's right, Naruto. I left six months after that day."

"Hey. Um, Lady Echo?"

"Hm?"

"You said those goggles were from a village far away from here. What Village?"

"It's a very long story…"

"We've got time! Right, Sakura?"

"Yeah, why not?" Sakura agreed

(Flash Back Time!!!)

_Village of Illusion. Twelve years earlier._

_Four children were racing trough the treetops. Three boys and a girl. Their names were Kisuke, Manjinn, Rei and Echo._

"_I'm tellin' you I sensed some weird chakra coming from outside the village!" Echo was in the lead._

_They stopped five kilometers from the village._

"_We're not supposed to be out here, Echo. Let's get back to class." Whined Kisuke._

"_Yeah, Echo. It's forbidden for students to be outside the village." Agreed Manjinn._

"_Hey, you forget. I__** am**__ a genin. And have been for three years."_

"_But you've never been on any mission before, have you."_

_Kisuke and Majinn both turned and laughed as they headed for the village._

"_Let's go, sister. I'm not sensing any chakra. It could've been some foreign ninja passing by. It's not like they could find the village. I mean, it's been, like, twenty years since someone did."_

'Damn! He's right. I don't sense any chakra at all now!'

"_Fine. We'll go."They turned and left._

_Back at the village, there was a commotion at the main gate. A huge crowd of villagers was gathered there and were cheering._

_Kisuke and Manjinn were at the back of the crowd and were waving at Echo and Rei._

"_Hey! Over here! You won't believe it!"_

"_What?"_

"_A traveling group of ninjas found the village. Your mom, I mean, Priestess Hana, is congratulating them. Go see."_

_Echo and Rei were pushing their way through the crowd to see what the strangers looked like when a feeling of uneasiness washed over Echo._

"_Rei."_

"_I feel it to. Is this?"_

"_Yeah."_

_They reached a break in the crowd where the strangers and Priestess Hana were standing._

"_Ah. Just the two I wanted you to meet." Said the Priestess. "This is my daughter, Echo, and my son, Rei. Echo is next in line to become Priestess, Lord Oro-."_

"_Orochimaru, young Echo-chan." The man stretched out his hand. He had long, black hair, purple marks from his eyes to the center of his nose, and eyes of a snake. (*Orochimaru means snake.)_

"_Nice to meet you, Lord Orochimaru." She met his hand and they shook._

'I don't like this guy. …Something's not right.'

"_Will you be staying, my Lord?" Asked the Priestess._

"_I believe I will. This village is very…interesssting."_

_He and his four companions followed her to the Priestess's home. They would be the Priestess's honored guests._

"_I don't like those guys, Rei. Especially 'Lord Orochimaru'."_

"_Me neither. What are you going to do?"_

"_I'm gonna watch the scroll tonight. Be careful."_

"_You, too."_

_The Scroll of Immortality was the Village of Illusion's most prized treasure. It was more important than the Dragon Shrine in Ezra Park, where the scroll was now, and the Dragon Priestess herself. _

_Ezra Park was named after the Dragon Goddess Ezra, who would reside inside the first newborn female in the Drazzon family. The vessel for Ezra would become priestess when she turned 18 or when her mother died._

_Echo was next in line for priesthood._

_Normally, Ezra and the vessel could speak to each other. Echo was 13 and had never heard Ezra's voice even though she has tried to speak with her over and over again._

_It was fifteen minutes till mid-night when a rustling in the trees put Echo's senses on extra-high alert. She pulled out a kunai and prepared herself._

"_Relax. It's only me."_

"_Rei! You scared the crap out of me! Why are you here?"_

"_I couldn't sleep with those guys down the hall."_

_Mid-night_

"_Hey, what's that?"_

_There was a red glow coming from the other side of the trees._

"_It's fire!" _

"_Rei, wait!"_

_He had taken off running toward the fire._

"_Stay here and guard the scroll, I'll handle the fire!"_

_He disappeared in the trees._

"_Yesss, Echo-Chan, stay…and play with usss. Ku-ku-ku."_

"_Orochimaru!!"_

_He and one of his followers had stepped from the shadows. That's when Echo noticed how small the follower was. And he had two heads!!_

"_Sakon, get the scroll! I want to play with this one a bit. Ku-ku-ku."_

"_Sick-o!!"_

_Echo went in for a punch but Orochimaru grabbed her shoulder and kneed her in the stomach._

"_Hurrk!!"_

_He grabbed the collar of her shirt and slung her six feet away._

"_Aw, that was no fun, Echo-Chan. I thought the Dragon Goddess's Vessel was incredibly powerful. Ku-ku-ku. I expected_ someone with such power_ to be a challenge, but I've been incredibly…disappointed. Even your mother wasn't a challenge. Ku-ku-ku"_

"_W-what?"_

"_That's right. So…I killed her. Ku-ku-ku."_

"_Hey, Lord Orochimaru, what am I suppose to do with this one? I caught him before he got to the fires." This came from a fat man dressed like the one called Sakon._

"_Just kill him. He is of no use."_

"_Don't…You…Dare…touch…him!!!"__Echo was standing. She was surrounded by a white, transparent wave of chakra._

_She began to hover off the ground. Rising higher and higher until the chakra took the form of a dragon._

_Orochimaru and the fat shinobi gasped._

_With Echo as the heart, the chakra dragon attacked Orochimaru, sending him flying toward a tree. Then it went for the fat shinobi, knocking Rei out of his grasp._

_The chakra dragon scooped up Rei in its arms and flew over the trees and out of the village._

_What would have taken normal shinobi weeks to accomplish, the chakra dragon flew thousands of miles until it finally landed in the center of the Land of Fire at a holy building known as the Dragon Temple._

Sakura and Naruto sat in awed silence at Echo's story. Kakashi had heard it before but every time she told it, he couldn't look her in the eye (for at least a few minutes anyway).

"So… That's what you meant when you said we were a lot alike."

"Yeah, Naruto…Yeah." Echo ended with a sad and depressing sigh…


End file.
